The Police Department Glares, And Bombs Don't Burst in the Air

In a test of wills between the Giuliani administration and would-be pyrotechnists, hundreds of police officers fanned out across the city yesterday to enforce a "zero tolerance" policy against illegal fireworks, bringing an unusual Fourth of July quiet to many areas and transforming one Queens neighborhood into an armed camp to prevent an annual fireworks display.

The epicenter of the police crackdown was on 101st Avenue near 98th Street in Ozone Park, Queens, where more than 250 officers took up positions on street corners, erected barricades and peered through surveillance cameras to stop an annual block party and fireworks show given for the last 24 years by John Gotti, the head of the Gambino crime family, who is serving a life sentence in Federal prison.

City officials refused to issue members of Mr. Gotti's private social club, the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club, a permit for the celebration, which traditionally draws hundreds of people for free hamburgers, beer, children's rides and, as its centerpiece, a dazzling round of fireworks that had become an embarrassment for the Police Department.

The citywide crackdown on illegal fireworks was ordered by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to reduce the number of injuries from fireworks, especially to children. He told the police to arrest anyone caught with illegal fireworks of any kind -- even sparklers -- rather than simply issuing summonses as in the past.

The police arrested 514 people on misdemeanor and felony charges related to fireworks from June 1 through late last night, Mr. Giuliani said at a 10:30 P.M. news conference at 1 Police Plaza. Last year from mid-May through July 4, 100 people were arrested.

Mr. Giuliani said the Department had seized 9,066 cases of fireworks totaling $3.5 million this year, compared to 3,633 cases last year.

"Next year, we'll do even better," the Mayor said. While officials said 102 people were seriously injured by fireworks in the city on the Fourth last year, the Emergency Medical Service at 10 P.M. had recorded just 30 injuries related to fireworks, including 15 people who had to go to the hospital. One woman suffered serious injuries to her fingers when an M-80 exploded in her hand.

In many neighborhoods where in past years deafening explosions have awakened residents around the Fourth, people reported hearing few if any this week. "Whatever they're doing, it must be working," Leroy Williams, 58, said in Riverside Park.

But there were resisters. In Bensonhurst at 9 P.M., blasts from roman candles delivered eardrum- shattering booms and sparklers lit up the sky, even though some residents said it was a calmer evening than in the past. On Ocean Parkway in Flatbush, clusters of children and adults gathered on almost every corner igniting fireworks.

Residents in the neighborhood around Third Avenue and Carroll Street in Park Slope usually organize their own fireworks display on the Fourth, but the plans were stymied last night by the presence of police officers from the 78th Precinct.

Some neighbors there were furious at the strict approach. "None of us are going to vote for Giuliani," Rose Casdelvetre said. "I've never seen something so ridiculous as this."

In Ozone Park, about 200 residents gathered in front of two metal doors to the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club yesterday to protest the cancellation of the festivities and to jeer at officers, who were stationed four or five to a street corner from Woodhaven Boulevard to 103d Street and from 103d Avenue to 99th Avenue. By nightfall, the crowd swelled to about 500.

Chanting, "Giuliani is a Backstabber," and holding signs that declared the Mayor a "disgrace to Italian-Americans," the protesters, most of them teen-age boys and young men, encouraged passers-by to honk and they cheered loudly every time the furtive pop of a firecracker echoed down the street. By 9 P.M., the police had handed dozens of motorists $65 tickets for "unnecessary honking." Then overwhelmed by the number of honkers, the police blocked traffic from 101st Avenue for about seven blocks.

Though several said they supported the Mayor's effort against fireworks, they saw the police presence in the neighborhood and the cancellation of the party as an excessive display of power meant to belittle Mr. Gotti and his associates. Two officers from the Department's Emergency Service Unit stood atop the roof of the Bergin Hunt Club dressed in caps, bullet-proof vests and dark blue work pants.

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"He has to show who's in control, I guess, but this is overkill," said Peter Digena, a 33 -year-old truck driver who has attended the celebration since he was a child. "This was always a party for the kids, not the adults really, and they came in here today and shut down everything just to stop a few guys from lighting some fireworks."

But Chief of Department Louis R. Anemone said there would be no way to police the area for fireworks if the street fair had been allowed to go on. "I think most of the community understands the need and the reason for this," he said last night. "It's been a safer Fourth of July without fireworks."

Throughout the day, police officials adamantly refused to say how many officers had been assigned to the area. "Sufficient, that's how many," Chief Anemone said.

By 6:30, Chief Anemone reported that three people had been arrested in the area.

The Mayor claimed victory last night in Ozone Park, saying that for years people had said the situation could not be resolved peacefully. "This has been accomplished," he said.

The show of force in Ozone Park was of proportions usually seen only during armed standoffs or after a police officer has been shot. A police helicopter crisscrossed the sky looking for anyone who might be preparing a fireworks display on a roof and klieg lights on trucks flooded the neighborhood. On an unused train trestle that runs along 100th Street, officers installed a video camera with a telephoto lens on Wednesday, and a phalanx of officers patrolled the trestle yesterday, looking out over rooftops with binoculars.

An elderly woman, who like many refused to give her name, said the helicopters had buzzed over her street all Wednesday night. "I didn't get any sleep at all," the woman said. "They kept shining a spotlight down in all our windows."

Although the protesters who took to the streets were forbidden to bring lawn chairs or to eat on the street, some made determined efforts to flout authority. An elderly man who would identify himself only as Vinnie walked around for several hours passing out cans of soda he had bought. When told to stop by an officer, the man yelled: "I'm an old man! Arrest me! What do I care if I get arrested?"

Helen Golder, who brought her sons, Jeffrey Sager, 8, and Timothy Sager, 3, said she had heard rumors that many inside the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club were indeed cooking and would pass out food after dark.

But no hot dogs, hamburgers or ice cream materialized and a one-page flier distributed by the men who emerged from the bunker-like club stated: "It was decided that in the best interest of our neighborhood, it was best to cancel this year's event."

It added: "We would like to avoid a confrontation between the loyal people of this community and Mayor Giuliani's goon squad."

Although Mr. Gotti is locked in a 6-by-8-foot cell in a prison in Marion, Ill., his spirit was very much present in Ozone Park yesterday as protesters chanted "We want John," and "Honk if you Love John."

A 58-year-old homemaker who refused to give her name said: "With all that Gotti took from this neighborhood and made people pay, this party was always how he gave back at least a little. Now, the cops won't even let us have a little bit back."